A survey introduction to the critical, theoretical, and historical study of women and gender in America from a feminist perspective. Readings range across a wide body of feminist scholarship in order to familiarize students with key questions, theoretical tools, and issues within the field. The course aims to sharpen critical awareness of how gender operates in institutional and cultural contexts, in students’ own lives and the lives of others. Two questions are central to the course:
- How is gender created and maintained through social practices (e.g., ideology or media
representations)?
- How do these gendered social practices intersect with other social categories, such as race and ethnicity, social class and sexuality?
Because Women’s and Gender Studies grew out of activism, this course explores the relationship between the generation of knowledge about women and gender, and how to bring about gender equity in a society where race and ethnicity matter. Most of the course materials are drawn from the U.S. context; however, several weeks’ readings and lectures address feminist work in other parts of the world and transnationally.
Course Requirements:
Weekly quizzes, at-home midterm exam, final group project.
Class Format:
The bi-weekly lectures for this class will be recorded and made available asynchronously. The weekly discussion sections will be held online and require synchronous participation. Tests and exams in this class will be asynchronous and held online.